Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1887-12-13
MISCELLANEOUS.
From Monthly Auction Trade
journal of c. B. Rouss.

AUCTION GooDs.-How these two talismanic
words rattle up the dry bones of stiff neked aris-
tocracy!
How the antedeluvian shakes with mortal
terror at the whisper of the sheriff and his mar
shals. The old beaten paths of thirty days
have been plowed up by the thunderbolt of tho
auctioneer; the four months halIucinations and
fascinations have been swept from memory.
place and time. Forty yesterday. twenty-five
to-dayi The trip-hamer of fate has smasht
the price but left the fabric untuched-how
genial, good harted, splendid "old timers" buy
ing regular and selling pay-when-convenicnt
plan have been, like the legions of iting Joe
Hooker in the path of Stouewall jackson in
the wilderness swept from the very face of the
Garth. The old regular, buying in second and
third rate markets with frait and two or three
per centages AIDED, or even in the metropolis
loading up twice year at regular market
prices Is ground to atoms by the level headed
genius whose daily arrivals at cash cut quota
| tions for bullion only reveals the vast difference
between the old stage coach and the lightning
express, q mile minute, annihilating time.
space and circumstance-stcam has buried the
| mule team. the stage coach and the old flint
locker, just as the NET SPOT CASH BEFORE DE-
| LIVERY has paralyZed. pulvcrizcd and buried
| the ledger legions of the credit cZar.
1t was under the great red flag that Stewart
won his fedeles laurels, and even after the
great merchant had passed into history his big
| buyers. taut in the hard skOol of expensive
| experience, stood waiting and watching for
the colossal balances that were beyond the
reach of commonplace.
But for these auction sledghamers these Ie-
gends of meteoric mercantile romance would
never have been recorded the wild dreams of
Unsuitable ambition undreamt-the pages of
the mimic, the tragic the pathetic-fuIl of
thrill aud thrOb, of sunshine and tears unwrit-
ten; the battles unfought-thc songs unsung-
the problem unsolvcd. But for this grape aud
canister the net spot cash would have been rob-
bed of its titanic force. its theory stript of re-
ality-its unanserable logic. without its ster-
ling. solid omnipotence. its old nameless red
flag would still be foting In the lazy breeze
away down in mediocrIty's narrow defilcs.
They who hav kept step with the ring of the
hamer and the metallic music Of the Almighty
MONEY DowS-and have whirIed along the
cOmercial race cours oblivious of everything in
the shape of competition that lodged in the
these sterling. splendid, solid fellows. beyond
the reach of tide or storm, merchant princes
of their own native hills and valleys, laugh to
scorn and derision the idle, thredbare. despair
ing wall of long-winded hard timers, that times
are tough, money scarce, crops bad, winding
up with the ledger, the lawyer and the inevita-
bic red flag.
Everything lies in the colossal Aggregates close,
n,,;clr
amounts and these in turn. on the CASH basis
viii always double your capital every year; re-
verse these rules and youT resorces are scat
tered upon the sweat book, your stock grows
smaller every year and in ten years the unfor-
tunate is a candidate for clerkshipy yhis books
ready for the paper mill and his asets for the
attorney and the sheriff ;-t,oeaty. flee Is Rae fair
and SQUARE, it is the right angle to frsof your
Krupps. little lower may lenthen the time. a
little hier invites competition. Twenty-Five Is
the safe, quick and true, but II must be upon
REAL CASH VALUES from headquarters or un-
der the hamer. Thirty and sixty day pur-
chases viii not coDand suces in this age Of
fierce, agresiv, unconditional warfare when
even the old regular is awaking from the tor
por of ages and filings upon the market some
OCCASIONAL stuners from under the hamer that
stagers. hits and hurts. Ten years vii tel the
story of lifetime on the true basis whilst the
lifetime is not long euuf to get haf way to the
top on the mule team skedule of time wher the
hopeles toilcr slips back every jump. and the
longer the road the more desperate the chances
until the tired wheel stops.
The great merchant prince of the world
played to perfection the ive per cent. rule in
his holesale. and twenty-five in his retail, and
when he swept past the million line. which was
at one time of life the acme of his hopes and
ambition. he was just beginning to grasp the
possibilities that lay before him At his sixtieth
mile post of life he past the forty million line
as fresh and ful of fire, still burning in intens
enthusiasm for hier records and still CRATER
welth but all tbro thes eyentfuI prodigi0us
ages clinging with the teDacity Of desperation
to the iron rules that had driven him away up
above the IOftfest commercial attitudes ever at
tafned-dTe at Wholesale. twenty-five at retail
From these lines he rarely deTiated unless TO
cripple or XII some daring champion who fought
as lie did, upon the liner line and with greater
audacity turned stil larger Aggregates upon stiI
closer margins; then from the great original
would hy and fall the thuuderbolts that dark
ened the air and shook the earth and fled the
field with dead courage and chiTaIry. and
choked the road with the recks of ruined hopes
and perished ambition.
Still CLAFLLH beat him IN many q terrific
tustle and when nthestwogreat onward iresista